Conformity behavior during a fire disaster

A fire disaster can involve severe personal injury, and individuals may take various actions to respond to such threats-in particular, following others' behavior when trying to escape. In this experimental study, 114 participants watched a video about escaping from a fire, then prepared an emotional-experience report and decided which of 2 or 4 options they would choose in a situation. Results revealed that individuals exposed to a fire situation experienced a significantly higher level of fear activation, inferior decision-making performance, and higher conformity tendency than did those exposed to a nonemergency situation. Further, the number of choices offered for making an escape was negatively related to conformity behavior, and decision-making performance was found to be a dual mediator both between the level of fear activation and conformity behavior and between the number of choices and conformity behavior.